Law & order

Former Mexican state governor extradited to South Texas from Italy

The former governor of the Mexican State of Tamaulipas, and former candidate for the office of President of Mexico, was extradited to the United States from Italy on Friday and charged with racketeering, drug smuggling, money laundering and bank fraud.

The extradition and indictments resulted from an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the IRS’s Criminal Investigations Division (IRS-CID), and the FBI.

This extradition was announced by U.S. Attorneys Ryan K. Patrick, Southern District of Texas and John Bash, Western District of Texas.

Tomas Yarrington Ruvalcaba, 61, from Mexico arrived in the Brownsville April 20 to face the charges, and is expected to make his initial appearance Monday, April 23 at 1:30 p.m. before U.S. Magistrate Ronald Morgan.

Health security

Doctor warns world about “chemtrail lung,” a new health epidemic causing brain and lung problems across society

The existence of chemtrails used to be a topic of debate, but they are now being more widely acknowledged by experts like meteorologists to scientists. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to deny that they exist as more and more people are coming down with illnesses related to chemtrails.

When TV host Rachel Reenstra had trouble overcoming a persistent cough, accompanied by aches, pains, and fever, she visited a doctor. After chest x-rays revealed a type of bronchitis, she was given antibiotics, which only seemed to make her feel worse.

Her doctor told her that lots of bacterial infections are going around, and when she asked him where they are coming from, he told her the truth that many doctors wouldn’t dare reveal to their patients: Chemtrails are at the heart of widespread lung problems right now. Surprised by his candor, she asked if she could videotape him talking about the phenomenon. You can see the video below; the unnamed doctor appears just before the 8-minute mark.

International security

Reconsidering NATO expansion: a counterfactual analysis of Russia and the West in the 1990s

The enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to include more than a dozen new members since 1991 remains a major irritant in Russia’s relations with the West. Russian President Vladimir Putin first raised complaints about NATO enlargement in an angry 2007 speech that shocked the annual Munich Security Conference,and later tied Russia’s annexation of Crimea to concerns about further NATO expansion. In September 2014 Russia announced it was amending its military doctrine in part because of NATO enlargement, and in October 2016 Putin called the deployment of NATO troops to Poland part of ‘a root change in the sphere of strategic stability’.

The debate over whether NATO enlargement threatened Russia’s security has a long history in the Western policy community as well, beginning with Cold War diplomat George F. Kennan’s February 1997 statement that it was ‘the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-cold-war era’. The argument gained new traction in 2014 when John J. Mearsheimer published two prominent articles that termed NATO enlargement and Russia’s fear that it would extend to Ukraine the ‘taproot’ of the current crisis between Russia and the United States. he question’s relevance has been deepened by a lively debate in the Western literature about whether NATO enlargement violated implicit or explicit promises made to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev or Russian President Boris Yeltsin, as Russians have long claimed. Yet former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul claims that in his eight years working for US President Barack Obama he never once heard Russian leaders complain about NATO enlargement.

Robots

What Happens When Your Bomb-Defusing Robot Becomes a Weapon


Micah Xavier Johnson spent the last day of his life in a standoff, holed up in a Dallas community-college building. By that point, he had already shot 16 people. Negotiators were called in, but it was 2:30 in the morning and the police chief was tired. He’d lost two officers. Nine others were injured. Three of them would later die. In the early hours of July 7, 2016, the chief asked his swat team to come up with a plan that wouldn’t put anyone else in Johnson’s line of fire.

Within 30 minutes, their Remotec Andros Mark 5A-1, a four-wheeled robot made by Northrop Grumman, was on the scene. The Mark 5A-1 had originally been purchased for help with bomb disposal. But that morning, the police attached a pound of C4 explosives to the robot’s extended arm, and sent it down the hallway where Johnson had barricaded himself. The bomb killed him instantly. The machine remained functional.

International security

A New Cold War With Russia Forces Japan to Choose Sides

The Japanese government has been engaged in a delicate balancing act when it comes to Russia. Even as the crisis in East-West relations has intensified since 2014, Japan has strengthened political and economic ties with its northern neighbor. It has justified this policy as essential in order to secure a breakthrough in Japan’s longstanding territorial dispute over the Southern Kurils/Northern Territories. However, as geopolitical tensions reach Cold War levels, Japan is under increasing pressure to fall in line with its Western partners.

Among G7 members, Japan has been an outlier on Russia for several years. The first indication of this was in February 2014, when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, an event boycotted by major Western leaders. After Russia annexed Crimea the next month, Japan did introduce some sanctions, though these were designed to be extremely weak, thereby signaling the government’s reluctant adoption of the policy. Indeed, the identities of the 23 individuals sanctioned by Japan were never revealed.

Energy security

IN PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRY, A SECOND WAVE OF GROWTH BROUGHT BY SHALE

The benefits of the U.S. petrochemical industry now being the largest natural gas producer in the world are well known and documented. The shale boom spawned a wave of expansions at petrochemical facilities between 2013 and 2015, particularly for fertilizer manufacturers, since natural gas can be converted into ammonia.

Less well known is that those expansions have continued. When combined with the $17.5 billion likely to be invested in 17 brand-new petrochemical facilities this year in Canada and the United States, 2018 could see the greatest number of petrochemical projects of any year since 2010, according to Texas-based Industrial Info Resources, Inc.

“The time for speculating which plants will be built or not is coming to a close, because we’re finally seeing the plants being completed,” said Kathy Hall, the executive editor and founder of PetroChem Wire, a trade publication that charts growth in the industry.

Two of the most recently completed projects are Chevron Phillips Chemical’s new ethane cracker in Baytown, which was built on a plot of land the size of 44 football fields, and two new polyethylene (PE) units south of Houston in Old Ocean, Texas. These units convert ethylene like that produced in Baytown into polyethylene, or resin pellets, that are the building blocks for a variety of plastics. The $6 billion investment was years in the making. It represented a shift in the company’s investments from the Middle East back to the United States due to the shale boom. The cracker and PE units were the first investments of this type built in the United States by Chevron Phillips in decades.

“This represents a 40 percent increase in our U.S. capacity to make ethylene and polyethylene, so that’s a huge ramp up for a company that goes back to the 1960s when we first built crackers, either as Chevron or Phillips,” said Ron Corn, senior vice president of petrochemicals for Chevron Phillips Chemical, in a recent interview.

Weapons

Russia, China, and the US are in a hypersonic weapons arm race — and officials warn the US could be falling behind

Three of the most powerful nations on Earth — Russia, China, and the US — are in an arms race for hypersonic weapons and the US might be lagging behind.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing this week that "hypersonics is the number one priority," for the US military's research and development.

"Both having them for ourselves, but also the defense against them. It is our number one priority in the developing technology" realm, he said.

Hypersonic weapons, along with AI, direct energy weapons, and robotics "will change the character of war," Mattis explained in his opening statement.

Electronic surveillance

China is building a vast civilian surveillance network — here are 10 ways it could be feeding its creepy 'social credit system'

China is setting up a vast surveillance system that tracks every single one of its 1.4 billion citizens — from using facial recognition to name and shame jaywalkers, to forcing people to download apps that can access all the photos on their smartphones.

The growth of China's surveillance technology comes as the state rolls out an enormous "social credit system" that ranks citizens based on their behaviour, and doles out rewards and punishments depending on their scores.

Not much is known so far about how China will monitor its citizens for the social credit system, but some of the technology currently available in China could well be used in the system. Tech companies in China are required to share data with the government upon request.

Electronic surveillance

Deadline to amend UK surveillance laws

High Court judges have given the UK government six months to revise parts of its Investigatory Powers Act.

Rules governing the British surveillance system must be changed quickly because they are "incompatible" with European laws, said judges.

The government has been given a deadline of 1 November this year to make the changes.

The court decision came out of legal action by human rights group Liberty.

Holding data

It started its legal challenge to the Act saying clauses that allow personal data to be gathered and scrutinised violated citizens' basic rights to privacy.

The court did not agree that the Investigatory Powers Act called for a "general and indiscriminate retention" of data on individuals, as Liberty claimed.

However, the judges did call on the government to speed up the process of updating laws to ensure they were compatible with European Union legislation.

Election security

International security

The Campaign for Donald Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize Has Begun

On Friday, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and South Korean president Moon Jae-in came together for a historic meeting that resulted in a once-unimaginable pledge: The two nations will work to officially end the Korean War and denuclearize the peninsula.

Who deserves credit for this momentous meeting and the push toward peace? Donald Trump, says South Korean foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha. “He’s been determined to come to grips with this from day one,” she recently told CNN.

And he may soon have a Nobel Peace Prize to show for it. Trump and Kim are currently the favorites to win the prize, according to one British oddsmaker, and some of Trump’s aides are telling reportersthat a lasting thaw between North and South Korea should win Trump the award.

Sport security

FINALLY: Russian doping case FAILS in court. Time to revisit Russia-gate?

It happened…Pandora’s Box was torn open, and out came Russia-gate, the Syrian Crisis, The Ukraine Crisis, and so much more, including the Russian Olympic doping scandal. By an odd turn of fate, however, it may be the resolution of the doping scandal, which brings hope for the other greater issues. Evidence for the Russian Olympic doping scandal, including the key testimony of Grigory Rodchenkov, was finally tried with fire – and found severely lacking. According to RT:

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has published two reasoned awards in the matter of 39 Russian athletes accused of doping, describing Grigory Rodchenkov’s evidence as “hearsay with limited probative value.”

Grigory Rodchenkov was, of course, the erstwhile head of Russia’s anti-doping lab, before resigning under shame, and fleeing to the US, where he made his accusations of “state-sponsored doping” against the Russian Olympic committee.

Financial safety

Capitalism Out Of Control: Keeping The Banking Bastards Honest Has Proved Impossible

The Banking Royal Commission has turned into an inquiry into the dark heart of Australian capitalism, writes Ben Eltham.

Can there be anyone in Australia who feels sorry for the banks right now? Australia’s big financial sector has rarely been popular, but the past fortnight has been something else again.

After more than a decade of banking impropriety, scandal and mismanagement, we all expected some dirty laundry to be aired in the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. But recent revelations have shocked even seasoned observers.

The banking royal commission is quickly turning into one of the most significant events in Australian political economy in a decade. It heralds a sea-change in the way Australians understand the financial sector.

Banks occupy the commanding heights of the capitalist economy. They are a central protagonist of neoliberal theory. And they appear to be systemically corrupt.

Airport security

Orlando airport to be nation's first to facial ID all international fliers

More than 200 passengers queued at Orlando International Airport for a recent evening departure to London, shuffling to a pair of subway-style gates, stepping onto yellow footprints and then looking up at cameras a bit more than an arm’s length away.

After their faces came into focus on the cameras’ screens, the gate doors parted, allowing the passengers to find their seats on a waiting Boeing 777.

The passengers had shown no boarding pass, passport or any other identification.

Instead, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection computer was comparing each traveler’s passport photo on file – or a visa photo of those not from the U.S. – with their newly captured portrait.

It was as quick as a Google search for most passengers. The British Airways waiting area emptied in 15 minutes, nearly half the ordinary time.

Color revolution

Armenia is having a 'color revolution.' So why is Russia so calm?

It looks like the typical “color revolution.”

Pro-democracy crowds take to the streets in the capital of some post-Soviet republic to peacefully protest the political manipulations of their Moscow-friendly ruling elite and demand sweeping reforms to the corrupt, oligarchic economic system they've grown to despise.

That's what's happening right now in Armenia. For over two weeks, huge, mostly youthful crowds have been holding rolling demonstrations in the center of Yerevan and other Armenian cities, reacting to an attempt by two-term President Serzh Sargsyan to extend his grip on power. Most previous “color revolutions” in the former Soviet Union have been similarly triggered by fraudulent elections or other duplicitous abuses of power.

But unlike those previous cases, the massive popular upsurge in Armenia went almost unnoticed in Western capitals for 10 days, until Mr. Sargsyan suddenly bowed to the street and stepped aside last Monday. Moreover, Russia, which is home to more than 2 million Armenians and has been obsessed with the supposedly dire threat of “color revolutions” for years, was more alert but surprisingly calm.

Foreign affairs

A lesson from Nigeria to Trump?

On Monday, the president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, will become the first African leader to meet President Trump at the White House. Much of the meeting will probably focus on what the United States can do for Nigeria. The continent’s largest economy has a median age of only 18, a sluggish economy, and endemic corruption.

Yet Mr. Buhari could have something to offer the US as well.

Nigeria may be one of the few countries willing to negotiate with a branch of Islamic State (ISIS), part of its decade-long struggle with jihadi groups such as Boko Haram. Most other nations, including the US, refuse to talk to ISIS or its affiliates.

On Feb. 19, militants from Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) seized 112 schoolgirls and one boy from the town of Dapchi in northeast Nigeria. A month later, after negotiations with the government, the group accepted a temporary cease-fire and released most of the children. The government said it paid no ransom. It is possible that ISIS leaders in the Middle East ordered the release.

International security

Moon tells Abe that North Korea is willing to meet with Japan

South Korean President Moon Jae-in told Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on April 29 that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is willing to hold talks with Japan at any time.

In a telephone call, Moon briefed Abe on his historic summit on April 27 with Kim, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea, in which he also raised the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea.

According to the South Korean presidential office, Kim told Moon in their summit meeting that North Korea is ready for talks with Japan.

“Prime Minister Abe is intent on dialogue with North Korea, and, in particular, is hoping that Japan and North Korea normalize diplomatic relations by settling their past histories,” Moon told Kim.

After the discussion with Moon, Abe told reporters in Tokyo, “I was told by President Moon that he talked about the abduction issue and Japan-North Korea relations to Chairman Kim and conveyed my ideas to him.”

Navy

After Brexit, Spain’s Rota base will be new strategic HQ for the EU

The southern Spanish town of Rota, in Cádiz province, is already home to the Spanish Navy’s biggest military base, and also to what is probably the largest US naval base in all of southern Europe. But after Brexit, in March of next year, Rota will also house one of the European Union’s five operational headquarters (OHQ), replacing the current one at Northwood, in Eastbury, Hertfordshire.

Rota also hopes to replace Northwood as headquarters of Operation Atalanta, the EU naval mission that fights piracy off the coast of Somalia. But this role is also coveted by Italy.

Milex 18, a military exercise that is taking place in Rota between April 13 and ends this coming Wednesday, will serve to certify the base’s new role as an OHQ, ready to command any mission or operation within the framework of the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP).

Spain’s Defense Minister María Dolores de Cospedal and a delegation of diplomatic and military representatives from the EU and NATO are scheduled to visit Rota today to witness part of the exercise.

Rota is widely expected to pass the test. The naval base is already home to four US guided missile destroyers and to the Spanish fleet’s general headquarters. The site is prepared to handle more demanding missions that the “non-executive” ones typically carried out by the EU.

Tortures

Britain’s secret ‘torture camp’ and the stench of a cover-up: How the brave men who protested about prisoners being abused at a UK base in Cyprus were shunned... until now

It was a clear October night in the hills above Kythrea and 19-year-old Jamie Eykyn was settling in for a long and uneventful evening. Standing sentry before a single-storey Army complex in the Cyprus countryside, the young Grenadier Guards officer had little to see and nothing to hear except the swish of the Mediterranean breeze through the olive groves.

Until, that is, the night air was pierced by sounds that still chill his blood today, six decades later – agonised screams from the men held prisoner in the building he was guarding: a British interrogation centre.

This was 1958 and EOKA terrorists were mounting an armed insurgency in their fight for Cypriot independence from colonial rule and, as Lieutenant Eykyn would discover to his horror, Britain’s response was uncompromisingly brutal.

Now aged 79, Mr Eykyn is speaking for the first time about the horrific events of 60 years ago – and about the shameful cover-up that followed.

U.K. elections

Labour’s final push to seize territory from Tories in local elections

With four days to go until polling, Labour volunteers are busily unloading huge boxes of campaign leaflets at their overcrowded election HQ in Battersea, south London. As fast as the latest material arrives in vans from the printers, it disappears out of the door again, as canvassers grab handfuls and fan out across the streets of Wandsworth.

This is the most important, closest and most keenly fought local election battle here in decades and canvass returns suggest the result is poised on a knife edge. “I would say the chances are 50/50,” says Simon Hogg, the Labour leader on Wandsworth council, which has been held by the Conservatives since 1974.

For Labour to storm this Tory fortress – Wandsworth was Margaret Thatcher’s favourite council and it boasts the country’s lowest council tax – would be a massive story. “It would be a political earthquake,” Hogg says. “And I think we can do it. More and more people are coming over to us in wards we have not won since the 1960s and 70s.”

Economic security

Western countries reportedly want to use cash and soft power to fend off Chinese influence in the Pacific

The US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand want to use economic initiatives and other elements of soft power to counter growing Chinese influence in Asia and Oceania, according to an Asia Times report.

Leaders from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada — which, along with the US, make up the Five Eyes defense partnership — have reportedly agreed to expand aid, trade, and diplomatic relationships in the region in response to Beijing's inroads there, which includes aid and investment in infrastructure projects.

China's growing economic relationships — many of which come as part of its expansive One Belt One Road initiative — are a source of concern for Western countries and others in the Asia-Pacific region.

India, for example, has expressed concern with Chinese partnerships with countries like Pakistan, the Maldives, the Seychelles, and Sri Lanka.

Flight security

New Tech to Help Rescue Pilot Behind Enemy Lines

Military forces depend, to a large extent, on GPS and need a redundant resilient capability to operate in a GNSS/GPS-denied environment. A new solution will supply U.S. Army search and rescue teams with radio communications equipment able to help find and rescue downed aircraft pilots in rugged terrain or behind enemy lines even without GPS.

McMurdo, a subsidiary of Orolia USA Inc., won a $33.9 million U.S. Army contract in March for personnel recovery devices that will be integrated into the Army’s Personnel Recovery Support System (PRSS).

McMurdo will provide a rugged, dual-mode, open, and secure beacon that enables individual warfighters to transmit distress signals, should they become isolated or missing, to support rescue operations. The company provides emergency position indicating radio beacons (EPIRBs) for naval and commercial ships that provide signal connectivity to rescue communications centers.

Drones

US Puts Drones at Forefront of Fight Against Extremists in Africa

he US Air Force is constructing a base for armed drones in the Sahara Desert, in just another stage of the battle against the extremist threat in Africa. Niger Air Base 201 is expected to be functional early next year.

Built at the request of Niger’s government a few miles outside Agadez, the base will eventually house fighter jets and MQ-9 drones transferred from the capital Niamey. The drones, with surveillance and added striking capabilities, will have a range enabling them to reach a number of West and North African countries, according to military.com.

The $110 million project will cost $15 million annually to operate.

The US military presence in Niger is the second largest in Africa behind the sole permanent US base Djibouti. Last October, an ambush by Islamic State group-linked extremists killed four US soldiers and five Nigeriens.

The drones at the base are expected to target several different al-Qaida and Islamic State group-affiliated fighters in countries throughout the Sahel, a sprawling region just south of the Sahara, including the area around Lake Chad, where Nigeria’s Boko Haram insurgency has spread.

Drug smuggling

The Pentagon is poised to send the LCS to thwart narcos

The military is poised to decide whether it will use the littoral combat shipto stop illegal drug shipments from South and Central America to the United States.
The move, amid pressure from lawmakers and the military command covering the Southern Hemisphere, would signal a new intensity in combating the importing of illegal drugs amid a tidal wave of opioid deaths in the U.S. It would also mean a program that has seen near-constant churn as the Navy has struggled to integrate the ship into the fleet may see more changes ― if it does have to gear up for a new mission.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford told lawmakers at an April 12 hearing that the Pentagon was reviewing what role the littoral combat ship could play in supporting counter-narcotics operations in U.S. Southern Command, something SOUTHCOM boss Adm. Kurt Tidd has asked for.
The Pentagon is still evaluating the right mix of Coast Guard cutters and littoral combat ships for Latin America and the Caribbean. Mattis said at the time he was awaiting Dunford’s feedback.

Foreign affairs

Far East, High Aims: Russia Reportedly Emerges as Venue for Kim-Trump Talks

With US President Donald Trump promising to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "in the coming weeks," the location of the summit has yet to be announced, leaving space for speculation.

The South Korean TV channel YTN cited a diplomatic source as saying that a possible summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un may take place in Vladivostok or Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East.

The source said that while Singapore remains the most preferable option for the United States, Pyongyang would like to pick a not-so-remote location that could be reached by railway rather than plane.

North Korea's location of choice could be the Russian city of Vladivostok, the source said, claiming that it was in Vladivostok that the Russian S-400 missile systems were deployed to potentially repel US attacks. 

This is why the summit may instead take place in Khabarovsk, another Russian Far Eastern city, according to YTN.

Nuclear security

Nukes Should Stay: German Court Rules Against Removal of US Weapons From Country

A peace activist tried to prove that the reported 20 nuclear missiles pose a danger to German citizens, being a possible terror target, and violated basic rights; but a court in Germany found her complaint insufficiently justified.

A local activist wanted to oblige federal authorities to persuade the US to withdraw nuclear weapons from German soil, but Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe has ruled that the US nuclear weapons can remain at the air base in Buechel, rejecting her complaint. The country’s top judicial body also announced that her claim wasn’t sufficiently justified, and inadmissible.

War on terror

The Military Doesn't Advertise It, But U.S. Troops Are All Over Africa

When U.S. troops were ambushed in Niger last October, the widespread reaction was surprise: The U.S. has military forces in Niger? What are they doing there?
Yet in many ways, the Niger operation typifies U.S. military missions underway in roughly 20 African countries, mostly in the northern half of the continent. The missions tend to be small, they are carried out largely below the radar, and most are focused on a specific aim: rolling back Islamist extremism.
In almost all of the missions, the Americans are there to advise, assist and train African militaries — and not to take part in combat. Still, those supporting roles can often take U.S. forces into the field with their African partners, as was the case in Niger.
"The missions are different, but obviously if they're out in a high-threat environment, they're going to be prepared for combat as a contingency," said Dan Hampton, a retired Army colonel at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a think tank sponsored by the Defense Department.
"It's hard to say it's not a combat mission when there's the potential for conflict and combat as they accompany these African troops," he said.

Biosecurity

Toxic Caterpillars Invading Parts of London, Officials Warn

British forestry officials are warning parts of London about an invasion of caterpillars whose long white hairs can trigger allergic reactions in humans that include skin and eye irritation, difficulty breathing and even anaphylactic shock.

Caterpillars of the oak processionary moth were spotted emerging from eggs in mid-April, according to the Forestry Commission, which oversees forests in England and Scotland.

The caterpillars’ hairs, which can be released as a defense mechanism or carried by the wind, contain thaumetopoein, an irritating protein, the commission said. Those who are allergic can become sick.

“At best, you can get contact dermatitis. At worst, you can die,” said Jason J. Dombroskie, manager of the Cornell University Insect Collection and coordinator of the Insect Diagnostic Lab in Ithaca, N.Y. “You can go into anaphylactic shock and have your airways close up. The airborne hairs set up a whole different ballgame.”

Seismic security

Yellowstone geyser erupts for 3rd time in 6 weeks

Geologists at Yellowstone National Park have reported the third eruption from the world's largest active geyser in the past six weeks.
A park visitor reported seeing a rare eruption of Steamboat Geyser on Friday, the National Park Service said.
Park geologists compared the report with seismic activity and the discharge of water and concluded the eruption probably started at 6:30 a.m.
The geyser also erupted March 15 and April 19.
All three eruptions were smaller than the last major eruption that occurred Sept. 3, 2014.
Steamboat Geyser last erupted three times in a year in 2003, Reuters reported, citing information from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.
This year's pattern is unusual but does not necessarily suggest a more destructive volcanic eruption is near, a geologist told Reuters.

Weapons

Could an 'insane' Russian nuclear torpedo cause 300-foot tidal waves?

Russia’s reported development of a formidable nuclear-powered torpedo or underwater drone is fueling concern about the potential devastation if the weapon were ever unleashed against U.S. cities.

While there has been speculation that the purported ‘doomsday’ device could be fake, Russia has offered up some recent hints about the shadowy system. During an address to the country’s Federal Assembly on March 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin described the development of unmanned submersible vehicles that can move at great depths much faster than submarines. “It is really fantastic. They are quiet, highly maneuverable and have hardly any vulnerabilities for the enemy to exploit. There is simply nothing in the world capable of withstanding them,” he said.

The Russian president explained that the country has completed “innovative” nuclear tests for the vehicle that “enabled us to begin developing a new type of strategic weapon that would carry massive nuclear ordnance.” Carrying either nuclear or conventional warheads, the vehicles could attack a variety of targets, including aircraft groups, coastal fortifications and infrastructure, he said.

Innovations & technologies

Silicon Taiga can become a reality to drive Russia forward, Vladimir Putin urged

Country can gain ‘100-fold’ from radical proposals to boost science and technology in Siberia and the Russian Far East.

The head of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences Valentin Parmon unveiled an ambitious plan to boost science to the Russian president in Novosibirsk, He called for ‘the accelerated development’ of the Novosibirsk and Tomsk Scientific centres. The focus was pure science but also the ‘creation of a powerful technological basis for Russia’. ‘We guarantee we can create 'Silicon Taiga' over a decade, he promised. The first tangible results will appear in three-to-five years, he said. Novosibirsk State University is one of the top five in Russia, he said. 

He told Putin: ‘We would like it to work more efficiently for the Siberian region and wish that Novosibirsk State University is given the same status as Moscow and St Petersburg state universities.

‘Evidently, we deserve it.’

If it is done the right way ‘the Siberians guarantee that everything will return 100-fold, including well-trained personnel’, he promised Putin. 

The president of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeyev stressed the need for action to  bolster science on the country’s Pacific rim. 

The Far East region - now a key growth area for Russia - is suffering a long term democratic outflow, especially among educated professionals. 

Election security

House intel panel's final report: No Russia 'collusion'

The House Intelligence Committee released a heavily redacted final report Friday on its yearlong Russia investigation documenting its previously reported conclusion that it found no evidence of collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 election.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said the Republican-authored report confirms that from “day one, the ‘Russian collusion’ investigation into the Trump campaign was an empty case.”

“It is a house built on sand,” the congressman said.

Meadows urged Robert Mueller to “wrap up” his special counsel investigation into alleged Russian “collusion.”

The House intel report, released over the objections of minority Democratic Party members, said the committee “found no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded, coordinated, or conspired with the Russian government.”

However, the committee said it did find “poor judgment and ill-considered actions by the Trump and Clinton campaign.”